This invention relates to beverage vending machines, and more particulary, to improvements in such machines which selectively dispense hot drinks and cold drinks while utilizing flavoring ingredients including carbonated and non-carbonated water.
Various types of beverage vending machines are well known in prior patents and are already used in the market place. In one vending machine type for selectively dispensing a hot beverage and a cold beverage, the cold beverage which is produced from non-carbonated water is brewed from a hot beverage which is thereafter cooled down. One way to cool down the hot beverage for serving as a cold beverage is to mix it with ice or cooled water but the taste of such a cold beverage when dispensed would be diluted by the ice water. Another way to cool down the hot beverage is to set up a refrigerating unit for refrigerating around the duct which conducts the hot beverage to the vending cup. However, with a vending machine provided with a refrigerating apparatus used solely for cooling the hot beverage, the size and cost of the vending machine is unduly increased.